The largest originator of U.S. home loans is easing lending requirements for people buying apartments, the latest in a series of moves by the bank to increase new mortgage lending.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) are up 0.75% to $52.70 after it was reported that the largest originator of U.S. home loans is easing lending requirements for people buying apartments, the latest in a series of moves by the bank to increase new mortgage lending, the Financial Tines reports.

"We're tweaking our condo approvals to make them more consistent with what Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC) allow," Franklin Codel, head of mortgage production at Wells Fargo, told the Times.

TheStreet Ratings team rates WELLS FARGO & CO as a Buy with a ratings score of A. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate WELLS FARGO & CO (WFC) a BUY. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, increase in net income, expanding profit margins and growth in earnings per share. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows weak operating cash flow."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

The stock has risen over the past year as investors have generally rewarded the company for its earnings growth and other positive factors like the ones we have cited in this report. Turning our attention to the future direction of the stock, it goes without saying that even the best stocks can fall in an overall down market. However, in any other environment, this stock still has good upside potential despite the fact that it has already risen in the past year.

The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has exceeded that of the S&P 500 and the Commercial Banks industry average. The net income increased by 3.8% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, going from $5,519.00 million to $5,726.00 million.

The gross profit margin for WELLS FARGO & CO is currently very high, coming in at 94.48%. It has increased from the same quarter the previous year. Along with this, the net profit margin of 25.94% is above that of the industry average.

WELLS FARGO & CO's earnings per share improvement from the most recent quarter was slightly positive. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, WELLS FARGO & CO increased its bottom line by earning $3.89 versus $3.36 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($4.12 versus $3.89).

Despite the weak revenue results, WFC has outperformed against the industry average of 12.9%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly dropped by 1.7%. The declining revenue has not hurt the company's bottom line, with increasing earnings per share.